Global Courant 2023-04-13 22:17:29
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights ruled on Wednesday that Mexico violated the rights of two men who spent 17 years in pre-trial detention before being convicted of murder.
The court, which is an arm of the Organization of American States, said such extended detention violates, among other things, the right to personal liberty and the presumption of innocence.
It ordered the Mexican government to make amends to Daniel García Rodríguez and Reyes Alpízar Ortiz, who had been arrested in 2002. Alpízar Ortiz’s conviction was later overturned on appeal.
The court also said Mexico should review its practice of pre-trial detention for a long list of crimes.
Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said the government would review the ruling. It has one year to comply.
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The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has ruled that Mexico violated the rights of two men who spent 17 years in pre-trial detention before being sentenced. (Fox news)
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President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has sparked debate in Mexico by expanding the number of ineligible offenses for bail, and has publicly called on the Supreme Court not to release more people pending trial.
Mexico does not have cash or bail for property like the United States. Instead, for those released before trial, there are more than a dozen mechanisms to ensure they appear in court, ranging from electronic surveillance devices to passport seizures to periodic check-ins.
The list of charges under which a suspect can be held pending trial has grown to 16 in Mexico, including abuse of authority, corruption and election crimes. Even some non-violent crimes – home burglaries and theft of cargo and fuel – carry automatic pre-trial detention, with no bail or house arrest allowed.
Mexico’s Supreme Court has debated the “no-bail” policy, with some judges arguing that it violates international treaties that state pre-trial detention should only be used in “exceptional” cases to prevent suspects from fleeing justice .
Only about two in ten people charged with a crime in Mexico are ever found guilty. That means that of the estimated 92,000 suspects held in cells awaiting trial in 2022, often with hardened criminals, about 75,000 will be locked up for years in Mexico’s dirty, overcrowded, dangerous prisons, and unlikely to be convicted. .
Mexico’s prison population has increased by about 30% since López Obrador expanded the number of non-bail crimes in 2019.
